1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an optical splitter/coupler, and in particular, to, in an optical splitter/coupler which splits light incident from one incident waveguide into two emitting waveguides, an optical splitter/coupler which can arbitrarily change the intensity ratio of the light which is emitted from one emitting waveguide and the light which is emitted from the other emitting waveguide, and, in an optical splitter/coupler which guides light incident from two incident waveguides out to one emitting waveguide, an optical splitter/coupler which can arbitrarily set the ratio at which the light incident from one incident waveguide and the light incident from the other incident waveguide are to be emitted from the emitting waveguide. The present invention further relates to an optical communication system using the optical splitter/coupler.
2. Related Art
An optical splitter/coupler is an important part in structuring an optical network. Optical splitting/coupling elements which have been used in conventional optical networks are passive elements, and can only split an optical signal at a fixed ratio.
It is thought that an optical splitter/coupler, which can greatly change the ratio of splitting the light, is needed in order to construct a more flexible optical network.